Unniyappam/Karayappam is a very famous traditional snack from Kerala. It is usually prepared as part of Vishu celebration and is one of the important item in Vishu Kani. The base of this recipe is rice and jaggery. Bananas would be used to make it soft and tasty. Special banana called palayam kodan/ Mysore pazham is needed for this. This has different aroma compared to other bananas. If you don’t get it, you can replace that with robusta. But it wont taste exactly like traditional unniyappam. So I prepare it only when I get palayam kodan/ Mysore pazham.
Unni means “small/kid” in Malayalam, and “appam” is a common name used for spongy or fluffy type food. This small round fluffy appam is cute and also delicious :-). Try it out !!
Ingredients
- Raw Rice : 500g
- Jaggery : 500g
- Maida : 125g
- Water : 1.5 cups (slighly above)
- Banana (Mysore Pazham/Palayam Kodan): 4-5
- Ghee : 3-4 teaspoons
- Dried coconut pieces : 3-4 teaspoons
- Thil : 2 teaspoons
- Coconut Oil : For frying
Preparation
Step 1: Grind raw rice in a mixer grinder and make nice powder.
Step 2: Heat a vessel and add jaggery and 1 cup of water and boil till it melts. Strain to remove all impurities.
Step 3: If mixer grinder in Step 1 is big enough, add melted jaggery, mysore pazham, rest of the water and maida into it and grind again. Once it is properly mixed open it and pour into a container.
Step 4: Keep a small frying pan on heat/flame and add ghee into it. Add coconut pieces and fry till it becomes brown.
Step 5: Add fried coconut pieces remaining ghee and thil into the mix in step 3.
Step 6: Keep this mixture for 5-6 hours.
Step 7: Keep unniyappam mould on flame/heat and pour oil into it. Once it is hot, take a small spoon of batter and pour in to one of the holes. Repeat this for all.
Step 8: After few seconds turn the unniyappams to otherside and again cook. Turning can be done frequently and make sure that no side burns out.
Step 9: Once it is golden brown or slightly more than golden brown, take out and keep on kitchen paper to drain out the oil.
Unniyappam will stay outside only for 2-3 days as we have added bananas into it. You can keep it in fridge for more than a month and can heat it in microwave while serving.
Enjoy traditional Kerala snack!!
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